This Tween Tuesday, Liz Atwood discusses the importance of family reunions:

This is the time of year when many families gather with cousins, aunts, grandparents, nieces and nephews for family reunions. I recently took my boys to a family reunion in Virginia and it was interesting to see how they reacted. There were well over 100 people ranging in age from 2 months to 90. While most who attended were from nearby towns, some cousins came from as far away as New England.

My kids were a bit nervous being around so many people they didn’t know. Most of my relatives live in small towns and on farms. They had sunburned faces and spoke with accents that seemed strange to my kids. The boys stayed close to me, my Dad and my brother’s family—people they see often and feel comfortable with.

But I’m glad they had a chance to see they belong to a larger family—descendants of farmers who toiled rocky land beside the Shenandoah River.

In this day of FaceBook, e-mail and cell phones, where we can reach distant relatives in just seconds, I think family reunions still have an important role to play. These gatherings teach children that people can be very different—can look different, act differently and speak differently—but they are still family.

Have you taken your kids to a family reunion recently? What did they think?